‘Buy water from salination plants at Barc’

The civic body is getting flooded with ideas to deal with the unprecedented water crisis the city is facing.

After Standing Committee Chairman Ravindra Waikar’s suggestion to bring water from Koyna dam, Sena corporator Rahul Shevale has written to the civic body saying it should consider buying water from desalination plants on Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) premises.

“I have asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to appoint the company as consultants and also to buy water from these plants,” said Shevale, corporator from Chembur (M-east) ward.

BARC has four desalination plants, which currently process one million litre (10 lakh litre) of water daily as per the demand. “But if asked to, they can process five million litre (50 lakh litre) water daily and it will bridge the gap between demand and supply in the M-east ward,” said Shevale.

“We will study the feasibility of the proposal,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Anil Diggikar.

The water from the desalination plants would cost Rs 40 per 1,000 litre, whereas the civic body currently provides water at Rs 3.5 per litre.

The desalination plants function from a technology called reverse osmosis. It is a filtration process. It works by using pressure to force a solution through a membrane, retaining the particles on one side and allowing the pure solution to pass to the other side.

Meanwhile, areas in Borivli, Kandivli, Colaba, Navy Nagar, Versova and near Chembur will be surveyed for feasibility to set up desalination plants there.

“There is always a water shortage in these areas and hence setting up a desalination plant here will act as a future investment,” said Diggikar.